Best Film for the Canon EOS 630
The best film to use in your Canon EOS 630 should be based on the lens, available light, and type of film you want to use.
To eliminate having to haul around a flash or tripod, opt for a 35mm film that has an ISO of 400 or faster.
Ensure you have a fast lens if you want to take images in low light, conditions that are often encountered indoors. For lens ideas go read my list on the 5 Best Lenses for the Canon EOS 630.
Color Film
Consumer
Kodak UltraMax 400 - The film handles a plethora of lighting conditions well and is a fantastic choice for a color film. The film is fast enough so that you should be able to handhold the EOS 630 in lots of circumstances.
Expect images to appear a little bit warm with gorgeous colors.
Fujifilm Superia X-TRA ISO 400 - An alternative to Kodak that could have better availability based on what country you are in.
When compared to Kodak, Fujifilm tends to be a small amount cooler with stronger blues and greens.
Lomography 800 - There are only a small number of offerings if you want a color ISO 800 35mm film. For 35mm film stocks geared towards consumers, Lomography 800 is the single choice.
It is available in the 120 film format, to be used with medium format cameras.
Kodak Gold 200 - A staple film emulsion that was launched in the mid-1980s. The film has the look of family snapshots from the 1980s and 90s. For the genuine shooting experience use a flash.
To bring the ideal look out of the film, make sure to over-expose it by 1 or 2-stops. This will help you achieve the gorgeous colors people love Kodak Gold 200 for.
Professional
Kodak Portra 400 - Among film shooting enthusiasts online, Portra 400 is definitely the top color 35mm film. Overexpose Portra 400 by 1 or 2-stops to get the look and feel the film is highly regarded for.
Portra is also offered in ISO 160 and ISO 800 versions. 8x10 sheets, 4x5 sheets, and rolls of 120 film are also manufactured.
Black and White Film
Consumer
With reasonable costs and more than acceptable favorable to be used in the Canon EOS 630.
The main appeal for budget minded photographers and photography students is the very low price. Even if you wouldn’t put yourself in those groups, it is nice to have affordable rolls of 35 film readily available for evaluating newly acquired camera gear.
Kentmere 400 - Produced by Harmon Technology, which is the owner of Ilford. This is excellent because that makes this the most broadly sold B&W film of the 3.
Foma Fomapan 400 Action - Will be much easier to purchase in Europe as the film is made inside of the Czech Republic by Foma Bohemia.
An excellent film stock to use for your first couple of attempts at analog photography or developing film at home. Also a good choice if you are attempting to check out a camera to check that it’s totally operational.
Ultrafine eXtreme 400 - You can get the cheapest price on this film by ordering it straight from Ultrafine.
They make developer kits for film, so if you process film at home you might have previously had interactions with them.
Professional
Ilford HP-5 Plus 400 and Kodak Tri-X 400 are the 2 most popular black and white film stocks. They possess several qualities in common that make them a favourite, while maintaining unique looks.
Both film stocks can be pushed 1 or 2 stops and still produce good results. This makes the film versatile as a roll can be shot at ISO 400, 800, or 1600.
Ilford HP5 Plus 400 - Between the two film stocks, HP5 Plus is cheaper and has lower levels of contrast. Low amounts of contrast can be nice because of the fact contrast can be changed when making a darkroom print or through digital post processing.
The film stock has subtle grain and still appears great when pushed 2-stops.
Kodak Tri-X 400 - This film stock possesses a more distinctive style. To bring out the classic grain structure, contrast, and look of the film, it needs to be developed in D-76.
You’ll certainly see considerably more contrast with Tri-X. That is good if that is the overall look you would you like because it results in a smaller amount of work when making a print in the darkroom or through digital processing.
Slide Film
Slide film, also known as transparency film or reversal film, provides a positive picture. This means the slides can be viewed with a projector or light box.
Colors are not required to be inverted to be viewed, unlike the more commonplace negative films.
Slide films are believed to be tricky to work with because slide film has substantially less latitude and dynamic range when compared with negative film.
Kodak Ektachrome 100 - This is a fine grain film known for beautiful skin tones. The colors don’t be seen as oversaturated. Ektachrome is daylight color balanced.
Fujifilm Velvia 50 - Delivers special looking photos that have elevated amounts of saturation and contrast. It is sharp and balanced for daylight. Velvia has the top resolving power of any available reversal film.
An ISO 100 version is also available to buy.
Fujichrome Provia 100F - Offers natural and vibrant colors with moderate color saturation and contrast. It has ultrafine grain with a daylight color balance.
Foma Fomapan R100 - This is a black and white transparency film, noted by Fomapan as having high resolving power, elevated levels of contrast, and fine grain. It is also billed as a substitute for the long discontinued Agfa Scala Film Stock.
Film Basics
Consumer vs Professional Film
Pro films cost more because they are easier to push, have better dynamic range, and latitude.
There might be a disparity in where 35mm rolls of film can be purchased. Consumer film emulsions can oftentimes still be seen in pharmacies and big-box stores in limited amounts. Professional film often need to be ordered from a specialized photography store or online.
ISO
A film’s light sensitivity is listed as the ISO.
The higher the ISO, the less light is needed to expose a frame. In addition, expect to see bigger film grain.
ISO 100 and slower films (ISO 25, ISO 50, etc) might be troublesome to use handheld in the EOS 630. This is because in the absence of full sun, the shutter speeds are going to be longer than what you’re able to handhold without producing motion blur.
A tripod, a fast lens, and/or a flash will help you with longer exposure times. The extra gear may not be needed if you choose to use a higher speed ISO 800 or ISO 400 film.
The ISO knob is marked as ASA on the Canon EOS 630. The shift to labeling ISO from ASA (American Standards Association) came after the creation of the International Standards Organization (ISO).
Film Latitude
Latitude is the number of stops a film can be overexposed while keeping usable images. Pro film emulsions have a larger latitude to go along with a somewhat higher cost.
Negative film has more latitude when compared to reversal film. That is one of the reasons why it’s regarded as more challenging to work with.
Dynamic Range
The range between the brightest and darkest details of a picture is referred to as dynamic range. Areas of a photo that do not fit within this range will be rendered as totally black underexposed shadows or completely white overexposed highlights.
A bigger dynamic range is preferable due to the fact that it can make shooting in a variety of lighting conditions easier.
- Digital cameras 14+ stops
- Negative film up to 13 stops
- Slide film 6-8 stops
The small dynamic range of reversal film is an additional factor it is regarded as challenging to shoot. Golden hour is the ideal time to use reversal.
Film Type
The Canon EOS 630 uses 35mm film that is in metal canisters. In addition, it’s the best-selling type of film and sometimes referred to as 135 film.
The only other type of film you are likely to encounter is 120 or 220 film that is used in medium format cameras}.
One of the excellent things about film is that you can switch the film stock you use and get a completely different look to your photos.
DX Coded Film
Almost all available 35mm film offered for sale today has a DX code. This lets cameras to detect and set the ISO when the film is loaded into the camera.
DX-coding isn’t going to make a difference for the Canon EOS 630 because ISO has to be dialed in manually with the ASA knob.
Canon EOS 630 Resources
Where to Get Film Developed?
There are a variety of possibilities for where to get film developed. For a more detailed explanation of the options check out my guide on Where to Get Film Developed.
WARNING: Pharmacies and big box stores have stopped developing film at the store. They ship film off to be processed by a 3rd party. As a result, you will not be given your negatives back.
- Develop Film at Home
- Use a Local Photography Lab
- Use a Mail Order Photo Lab
- Pharmacy or Big Box Store
Shipping film to a mail-order photo lab to be developed and scanned is the least difficult solution if you are just getting started using film. A disadvantage to this is that it becomes pricey if you are regularly shooting film.
There are two activities that can be done to greatly reduce the costs required to use film, provided that you’re using a medium to high volume of film.
Bulk Loading Film
Certainly one of the most well known options to save some money on film is to buy a roll of 100’ of film and manually load it into canisters yourself.
A 100 foot bulk roll should fill roughly 18 rolls of film containing 36 frames each. Based on the film you will probably save 20%-30%.
Take into account that you are only going to be able to purchase rolls of black and white film. This is in part because black and white film is less difficult and cheaper to process yourself.
Home Developing and Scanning
All film can be developed by hand. In fact it’s an intelligence option to lower your costs so that you can use more film with your Canon EOS 630.
Black and white film is by far the easiest to develop. Developer temperature and time are not as essential to do correctly with black & white film as they are for slide or color negative.